Sending Her Away

To treat and love the robot as a pet, or even as a child was acceptable to him. To him, this was just a way of life.

Using the robot as a mode of sexual relief, or even use it to build sexual fantasies was not a big deal to him, either. Performing a sexual function was just one of the robot's many functions.

But to love the robot as a woman, and even develop physiological impulses for the machine… was something he could not accept.

This isn't right; this is not normal; it doesn't make sense.

How to stop his odd behavior, or even to terminate this relationship, he knew what to do without the need to check with Meng Bei Psychiatry.

…

The moment he opened the door upon reaching home, Gu Anbao came to greet him. "You're back," she welcomed him with a gentle smile.

He had always liked her smile but this time around, he chose to avoid her eyes and looked down while he walked into the apartment.

He sat on the sofa for a while to think before getting up to go to the bedroom. Inside the room, he started to pack her daily belongings.

She did not have a lot of stuff with her. All she had was two changes of clothing, a robot-specific charging cable and data lines. A hand-held case was sufficient to pack all these items.

She watched him pack her belongings with a start. But then, she came to accept what he was doing and watched him quietly without uttering a word.

After packing, he tidied up the luggage and told her in a peaceful tone, "Let's go out for a while."

She nodded her head slowly in acquiescence.

All this time, she did not raise a single question.

He drove the car in the direction of the city outskirts. Along the way, they passed by busy and crowded city streets and commercial districts, and slowly, they zapped through the modern cityscape into a wide and clear expanse with rustic-looking villages.

Flowing streams and dangling willow branches lined the sides of the road. Plantations and rice fields could be observed in the distance, and the outline of a hilly mountain range could be seen even further away.

Today was a good day. The beautiful weather nicely complemented the scenic beauty they passed along the way. The scenery should be uplifting but yet the two inside the car had remained strangely quiet…

Dozens of mountain goats suddenly appeared out of nowhere and obstructed the road ahead. He sounded the horn from afar which the creatures gladly ignored. They continued to munch on the grass leisurely and strolled on the road.

The car drove closer and yet the goats did not show any intention of moving from their spot. Left with no choice, he had to stop his car.

An old lady from a nearby farm dashed out and started to shout at her goats, scolding them for being rude to the owner of the posh car. Slowly, the goats started to disperse to both sides of the road, on the grassland. However, two or three obstinate ones stood firmly on the spot, unwilling to move away.

The old woman was so upset with them that she grabbed hold of their horns and tried to drag them away. When that failed, she went to slap their bottoms.

Inside the car, Chen Yuheng sat quietly as he watched the scene acting out in front of him. Gu Anbao, sitting beside him, did the same.

He finally broke the silence inside the vehicle. "Why didn't you ask me where are we heading to?"

With her eyes still staring ahead, she obliged with a question after a long pause. "… Where are we going?" Her voice was still gentle but sounded hoarse and dry this time.

"My grandpa lives here."

"Oh…" she gave an obligatory response and did not dare to probe further.

One by one the mountain goats were finally chased off the road, and at last, it was clear to go.

He could feel his throat and eyes turning dry. There were things he wanted to tell her, yet he did not know how to put it into words…

After restarting the car, he retorted, "I'm rather busy at the moment, so you can stay here for the time being." It sounded like a justification.

He just could not bear to see her depressed.

She glanced at him sideways, her mood seemed to be uplifted after she heard his words. "For the time being… how long will that be?" she asked softly.

He did not know how to reply to her.

The truth was, even he was not able to tell how long he meant by "for the time being"…

He could only mutter a vague reply. "When business isn't that busy anymore…"

She was relieved to hear that… As long as the man wasn't going to abandon her.

Cheering up, she gave a gentle smile and nodded, "Alright, I'll wait for you to come and fetch me."

When he heard her reply and saw her smile, he just felt like an absolutely despicable man! What a liar he was!

Self-loath overwhelmed him and only made him unable to think straight after that.

The car stopped outside the front gate of a country manor.

Gazing through the iron-grill gate, she could check out the entire visage of the house. The manor was not considered majestic by itself. However, it seemed that an additional extension to the building had been added. In any case, it could not be described as elegant or classy. It looked plain but pleasant and exuded simplicity and casualness.

What was so out-of-place for such a simple-looking house was, the garden wall was actually installed with a state-of-the-art security system. Also, the door to the house was passcode-protected.

After parking the car, he alighted and carried her luggage toward the garden. She hurriedly followed behind him as she curiously sized up the surroundings at the same time.

Boston ivy crept over the garden walls in a sea of green. The two sides of the yard had shelves lined with small tomatoes, beans and other kinds of vegetables and fruits that she could not recognize. They were walking on the stone slates that were placed in the center of this garden. Even this pavement was lined with a row of vines, with branches of delicious-looking grapes overhanging their heads as they walked past. One could feel hungry just by staring at these grapes.

Someone came out of the house and spoke to him.

"It's you, Yuheng… Uncle Chen was just moaning about you." The lady speaking to him looked to be in her 50s. She had a permanent beam on her face that highlighted her laugh lines. Looking simple, she was dressed in an outfit typically seen on middle-aged villagers.

"Aunt Xu," he greeted her with a smile, and then pulling Gu Anbao from behind him, he said, "This is Ruan Ruan. She will be staying here for a while."

She replied with a start. "Oh… Is this who you were referring to the last time?" He had long discussed his plan to have a robot helper for his grandpa with the housekeeper.

He nodded.

Gu Anbao did not suspect anything fishy as she thought he had merely brought up the topic of her to the middle-aged lady prior to the visit. She greeted the housekeeper obediently, "How do you do, Aunt Xu. I'm Ruan Ruan."

The lady smiled and replied, "How are you, Ruan Ruan."

"Let me take her in to meet gramps."

Nodding her head, she warned him hushedly, "He just threw a tantrum after watching the news… Be careful what you say." With that, she turned around and walked back to the house.

The robot noted that Aunt Xu had a limp when she walked. It looked like she was crippled in one leg.

The bead-drape curtain was pulled apart to reveal a squarish hall. Facing them was a gigantic painting hanging on the wall with the Chinese character, "Fu"1. Beneath the painting was a long altar table with a few idol statues accompanied by incense sticks and offerings of fruits and tidbits.

Gu Anbao only stole a peek at the altar table and dared not let her gaze linger. Hanging her head, she followed behind him obediently. They walked past the hall and followed the side path to the backyard.

The backyard was actually used to grow watermelons.

There was an old man in a vest squatting in the middle of the watermelon patch. Clapping twice on the watermelon that he was holding in his hand, he held his ear next to it as if he was afraid that the sound would not be loud enough.

He saw the two of them approaching and roared impatiently, "Don't come over! You'll step on the vines on the ground."

She immediately backed off.

But he held onto her and gave a slight tug, pushing her forward instead. "Gramps, this is Ruan Ruan. She will be staying at our place for the time being."

This seemed to agitate the old man as he stared at them, wide-eyed, with his nostrils flaring. "Don't try to fool me! You must have gotten another young nanny for me again! Tell her to get lost!"